Slice of Live

MILWAUKEE (AP) — A Wisconsin couple says clucks, not fire trucks, helped them escape a blaze at their home.

Dennis Murawska, 59, said a pet chicken named Cluck Cluck woke his wife Susan Cotey, 52, with loud clucking from its cage in the basement two floors below. The couple’s two cats also were running around the main floor.

Murawska said he had been half awake but didn’t know about the fire because the smoke alarms hadn’t gone off. He realized something was wrong when his wife got up.

“The chicken gets quite vocal when she gets excited,” he said.

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Cluck Cluck came from a nearby farm in Alma Center, about 135 miles east of Minneapolis, Murawska said. When the chicken began wandering over to his house, his neighbor said he could kill it because it wasn’t producing any eggs. But Murawska felt sorry for Cluck Cluck because she had a mutated foot and decided to keep her. He fed the bird and built a coop, and then his wife let Cluck Cluck into the basement on cold nights.

“I spent way more money than I ever should’ve,” Murawska said by telephone. “I guess it paid off.”

The couple escaped, and firefighters found the chicken in its cage and one of the cats alive in the basement. Another cat hasn’t been found and is presumed dead, Murawska said. The couple and their surviving cat checked into a Black River Falls hotel, while Cluck Cluck is staying with the neighbor who used to own her.

Alma Center Fire Chief Jeff Gaede said the fire started in the attic of the attached garage and was not suspicious. The house was a total loss, but it could have been worse — if not for the chicken.

“We are used to hearing about a dog or cat or something, but we never heard of a chicken waking up a resident for a fire,” Gaede said. “That’s pretty amazing.”

Vulture pickers

HOMESTEAD, Fla. (AP) — Visitors to parts of Everglades National Park are getting tarps and bungee cords to make their vehicles less delectable to vultures.

Migrating vultures have developed a habit of ripping off windshield wipers, sunroof seals, and other rubber and vinyl vehicle parts. Visitors to the park’s Homestead and Flamingo entrances are loaned “anti-vulture kits” to protect their vehicles.

Park wildlife biologist Skip Snow tells The Miami Herald (http://hrld.us/WQkfgB) that the vultures are migrating as normal. It’s just not clear why the birds are picking at parked cars and trucks. Park employees have tried to scare away the vultures, but nothing has worked.

Park Superintendent Dan Kimball says complaints about the vultures have declined since employees began distributing the tarps and bungee cords last year.

Inmate buried

MUSKEGON, Mich. (AP) — A Michigan inmate who tried to escape by burying himself in a prison garden has been sentenced to an additional two years behind bars.

Authorities say Edwin Cota was found buried in August at the Brooks prison in Muskegon. He had a sheet tied in knots that he had hoped to use to get over the fence.

The Muskegon Chronicle (http://bit.ly/U9uGve ) says Cota was sentenced to at least two years in prison Thursday after earlier pleading no contest to the attempted escape. The punishment will be added to the sentence he’s serving for home invasion in the Detroit area. His earliest release date for that crime is in 2018.

In August, officials said Cota’s scheme fell apart when guards interviewed his cellmate, who had appeared nervous.